Episode 7: Paul Rocchio and the IFA

Location3 host Josh Allen sits down with the International Franchise Association's (IFA) Paul Rocchio. As VP of Development & Member Services for the IFA, Paul has played a key role in organizing the annual conventions and providing educational resources to the franchising community.
Paul has a wealth of knowledge on the IFA and franchising that he's excited to share. Listen to the latest episode of Shoptalk to hear more about:

• the founding of the IFA
• how the IFA has supported the franchising community, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic
• FranPAC
• the IFA's newest initiative, Open For Opportunity

Plus! The IFA's Annual Convention is less than a week away! It's the biggest event in franchising, and we're looking forward to meeting with you. Register here.

Transcript

Josh Allen: 0:09

Welcome back to digital shop talk the podcast I am one of your location three co hosts, Josh Allen, really thrilled today to be joined by none other than Paul rocky of the International Franchise Association had a long term relationship with Paul and his team at the IFA, we're getting ready for convention. So super pleased to have him as a guest on the podcast today, Paul, it's great to talk to you again.

Paul Rocchio: 0:35

Josh, my friend, my man, how are you man? Good.

Josh Allen: 0:38

Good getting round San Diego. Yeah, yes. We're getting some snow in Denver and warm weather and some palm trees. And excited to see you and see the team. Yeah. Likewise, man. How are you guys?

Paul Rocchio: 0:52

Everything's rocking and rolling. This is, you know, this is the best time of year for us. You know that? You know, of course, I'm biased. But you know, the I think pension is the premier franchising event for the year. This is the time we get to see and spend time with close to 4000, you know, of our of our members, and myself and the rest of the staff led by our president and CEO, Matt, how're we are, we're all there to, to make sure and provide concierge service to all the attendees to make sure you have an awesome experience. I love it. You know, it's funny. I mean, you know, I've been with IFA not that I'm counting. But next month, 23 years, oh, man. And somebody asked me recently, how many conventions have you been to? And I said, I've actually never attended the IFA convention. I make it an awesome experience. Or at least I try to, for everybody who does attend said it's true. I mean, you know, I've attended I've attended multiunit a bunch of times, but but really don't attend the IFA convention. But you know what I mean, no, right.

Josh Allen: 1:55

Yeah, no, you wear a lot of hats. And honestly, to your point, it's one of our probably our favorite events throughout the year, we always, it's always around the same time as the Super Bowl, we joke that it's kind of the Super Bowl in franchising, because of the work that you guys do and how big it is, and how great the agenda is break the content as it's just and then the obvious thing, which I think we're probably all looking forward to a bit more this year than even years past is just getting a chance to see some familiar faces and meet some new ones. Back in person once again, so

Paul Rocchio: 2:28

awesome. I know. Exactly. Tell me

Josh Allen: 2:32

for those, you know, listening today, who may be either, you know, loosely familiar with the IFA, or just learning about the IFA, you know, give me your sense and your perspective on what the mission of the International Franchise Association is?

Paul Rocchio: 2:46

Oh, yeah, excellent question. So I think it was founded, believe it or not, by Bill Rosenberg, the founder of Dunkin Donuts, and a few other founding folks of franchise brands back in the very late 50s. But they found that IFA in 1960, to promote, protect and enhance franchising, not just domestically, but really, globally. So, again, at the end of the day, you know, we are the truly the voice of franchising, and like any trade association, especially, you know, the ones based here in Washington, DC, you know, we we protect the business format franchise model, you know, we are the, the lobby shop for for franchising. I mean, we all know, franchising is heavily regulated, federal, state, and, and regulatory side. But, you know, so we have a seasoned team of government relations professionals that are making sure that there are no onerous bills being introduced to affect the business format franchise models, so you know, franchisors and franchisees, and even suppliers, like yourself, who have a lot of clients in the franchise space, you know, we all want to make sure that, that we're protecting that model. So everybody involved with that business model could continue to grow and thrive, and not have to worry about any onerous legislation laws that are being introduced. And so that that is, you know, is really the, the primary focus as to why I think was founded to begin with, but, you know, we also, again, only, you know, promote our members. I mean, listen, we're a voluntary membership organization, do you need to be a member of IFA to be a successful franchisor franchisee, you know, or supplier vendor in the space? No, but I like to think, you know, our members are expected to abide by new here to the code of ethics. And so I like to think our members, you know, are the cream of the crop when it comes to, to franchising I mean, we all know that there's, you know, over 300, different verticals, lines of business that use the business format franchise model as a means of distribution and growth. I mean, it's funny, we, we don't like to say franchising as an industry because it really isn't, it's like 300 different industries, if you will, right. For lack of a better term. It's an industry right, but um, But you know, again, we only promote those folks who are members. So we only, you know, allow members to be listed on our website, we only allow members to be listed in our printed guide. If we're contacted by local or national media as we are on a daily weekly basis, we only will shine the light on on those brands that that are members of IFA. And then, of course, you know, on the enhanced side, or the education side, that's like the primary thing, really, at the end of the day that that we do, regardless of your maturity level within franchising, you know, whether your, your multi unit, multi branded franchisee with 1000s of employees, or a startup or an emerging brand, wanting to learn best practices and understand and learn from folks who've been up the ladder before them, you know, at the end of the day, we we educate our members, we help continue to educate our members because franchising is always changing and always evolving. And of course, you know, we have our certified Franchise Executive Program. I like to refer to it as you know, getting a number in the NBA in franchising or getting a master's degree if you want to franchising it's a certification program, obviously, but I am a CFP, though I'm a I am an A sociation hack. I like to call a

Josh Allen: 6:23

listen, I'm gonna do a shameless self plug here. I earned my CFP and I get to cross the stage at graduation here in a week or so.

Paul Rocchio: 6:31

That's awesome. Thanks, man. Thank you, man. Good. Seriously, great program. Great. No, it is it is and and, you know, I mean, listen, I I like to say I'm a recovering lobbyist. I mean, I moved to DC to get my master's degree and at GW and political management worked on Capitol Hill, got involved in the association world when from the chemical manufacturers to the Retail Industry Leaders Association, doing primarily state government relations work moved over to IFA doing some federal lobbying, but really to build the political grassroots program. And, and then about two years into my, into my stint that I kind of got fed up with the whole lobbying piece and really fell in love with franchising fell in love with working with all these entrepreneurs and just, you know, you know, there's, you know, we're not reliant on any one industry, so many different industries and, and our CEO at the time, you know, position opened up in our on the membership team and, and I knew I'd be changing my career just didn't think I'd be hanging my hat here for you know, 23 years. Listen, it's not every day you get to wake up and just kind of love your job and love what you do. And, you know, I do, you know, I enjoy working for all of you guys, you know, all of our members, franchisors, franchisees and suppliers.

Josh Allen: 7:49

That's awesome. I you know, fast forwarding to 2022 lots happened over the last couple years. How is the IFA with all all you've kind of discussed kind of how the IFA has come along since its inception, right? How specifically over the last few years with everything that's kind of gone down as a result of this dreaded C word that I won't mention? How is the IFA evolved? I know there's, you know, we participated in the obvious things like virtual events and conferences, you know, membership adjustments, I'm curious to kind of get your take on how you've seen the organization evolve. Have you seen membership grow? And if so, is it at the franchisor level, the Z level and supplier level or across the board? What are your thoughts?

Paul Rocchio: 8:30

Listen, excellent question. First and foremost, and I'll continue to pat my colleagues down the hall, on our government relations team, they were directly responsible for the franchising community, to have easy access to PPP funds, and really to everything else that was made affordable to everyone, through the cares, act and ongoing. At the end of the day, as we all know, politics, you know, as much as I hate to say it, it's all about gaining access to the the movers and the shakers, the legislators, and, you know, we have a very robust political action committee. And, you know, regardless of your politics, at the end of the day, we need to continue to have a strong PAC because of our strong political action committee. We had a seat at the table when the Cares Act was being drafted and because of that, franchising was written into it. And because of that, everybody in the franchising community had, for the most part, easy and quick access to PPP funds. So right there. You know, for those of you it's huge convention, or for those of you who are members of IFA, and if you have no clue what a what friend pack is or what a political action committee is happy to educate you on it, or put you in touch with my colleagues. Here at IFA who can educate you on it, we have a lot of different ways to get involved in it. You can do$1 a day, which is a 365 plug. So it's $365. You know, listen, it's all regulated by the Federal Election Commission FEC. It's all personal funds, you can't use corporate funds. Once you have a corporate PAC, you can do a Pac Pac contribution, but the day personal funds, it's capped at $5,000. So you could do $1 a day, we have other options. But you know, a lot of folks just do $1 a day, I do $1 a day. Like it's the least I could do. Because at the end of the day, franchising puts food on my table. So over the past two years, that was paramount, that was above and beyond anything else. That was what resonated the most with our members. A close second to that was all of the ongoing communications we did for our members, all the webinars we did for our members at the time. March 2020, myself, and at the time, my my new boss, our Chief Revenue Officer, Jennifer brand, Dean, she had just started IFA right before our convention, then we were at a conference, we got back from that conference, right when everything was, you know, starting to hit the fan, if you will. And it was, like March 16, if I remember correctly, was a was a Monday or it was?

Josh Allen: 11:30

I think you're right. I think that's right.

Paul Rocchio: 11:32

And it was either Yeah, yep. And we were, we were at this conference, a lot of CEOs were there. And everybody was getting more and more concerned, we got back to the office. And we quickly realized we need to, we need to put together a webinar series. She and I stayed here until midnight on a Monday, putting together a whole series of topics. And then we quickly rolled out our first webinar, which was government relations related. But then following that, and then we were doing like three, almost three webinars a day for seemed like months. And of course, you know, I was, you know, kind of hosting a majority of them. But at one at one point, I felt like we were doing too many, but I'm telling you, the franchisee community loved it. The franchise work community loved it, and the supplier community loved it. And that's what we did. And we did that until we got to the point where you know, what, we don't need to we don't need to do these ongoing webinars, you know, but we did it for months, it seemed like, it seemed like it lasted almost a year almost. But I'll tell you, that is what we did. You know, I try not to say pivot, but we pivoted, we had both on the relations side, but also, you know, on what we were going to do and provide to our members. And, you know, we even you know, last year, listen, I think it's safe to say we are everybody's fed up with virtual, right. I the virtual world is always going to be there's always going to be a component of the virtual world. But we all miss face to face interaction. Franchising, as we all know, is truly a relationship business. And I think a group of us there are some of us who started, you know, going back and, you know, attending meetings, you know, late summer, early fall of last year, but for so many folks I've been chatting with leading up to our convention coming up next week. This is going to be the last thing they attended was the IFA convention in 2020. And the first thing they're going to attend is the IFA convention in San Diego next week.

Josh Allen: 13:35

I'm a member of that group.

Paul Rocchio: 13:37

And, you know, so so that, you know, there it is, I mean, it's like, it's amazing. And so, there are so many people who just cannot wait to see one another. And listen, we all know it's franchising. It's a relationship business, whether the franchisor, the franchisee, the franchisor, franchisee, and the supplier, of course, you know, the franchisee, and their customers. It is just an ongoing relationship business. And at the end of the day, I always tell people, especially folks who are new members or new vendors to IFA, you are going to walk away from the IFA convention with hundreds of new relationships, and three are membership and support and involvement in IFA, you will continue to grow those relationships. And I ain't from my vantage point, I just, I've seen this happen year over year. And so many of our members even some of them that are competitors have become very close friends, franchisors, franchisees and suppliers. They travel with one another, they spend lots of time with one another. And this is truly as we all say, the franchise family. This is truly a family. It just is it's it's just a really fun again, industry, if you will to be able to be a part of right Josh.

Josh Allen: 14:57

Yep, absolutely. Conventions going to be great and to that point. Seeing a lot of folks, you know, since many of us probably last saw each other in Orlando a few years back, it's gonna be fantastic.

Paul Rocchio: 15:07

Exactly. So for the show for those folks and let me just plug it obviously. Yeah, absolutely tell us about convention who are not registered for the convention or who are on the fence. We will be in San Diego, February 26. through March 1. We are on target to have about 3200 between 30 230 500 attendees. There's 300 Plus exhibitors, the exhibitors are folks like yourself location three and other vendors, some b2b franchise systems as well. And then the attendees are franchisors, franchisees and suppliers. There's about 500 over a little over 500 franchisor brands that are represented in in attending the convention and then obviously suppliers and and franchisees as well. So we are we're just all very excited to start getting back into some face to face meetings, at least with the with the IFA convention.

Josh Allen: 16:02

Yeah, absolutely. And we'll find you probably running around all over the place, as always, you'll be able to track down but I know you'll be everywhere at the same time.

Paul Rocchio: 16:11

I try to I try to be Yeah, exactly.

Josh Allen: 16:13

Really quickly before because we only have a couple minutes here. Tell me about I know there's a lot on kind of the 2022 roadmap for IFA, we've talked about convention, tell me a little bit more about this new initiative, open for opportunity that you guys really rolled out. It's definitely encouraging and really exciting to see and want to learn more about it.

Paul Rocchio: 16:34

Most definitely. You know, this was, again, kind of the the idea, if you will, of Matt Hauer I've worked with Matt for a little over 10 years, he's held a couple of different roles here, most recently overseeing government relations. He he took the helm as our president and CEO a few months back and he has definitely hit the ground running. And oh fo are open for opportunity was one of his ideas. So it's really it's just going to be awesome. Again, so many people don't understand franchise, they don't understand the business format franchise model. And in a way to celebrate and really elevate the franchise community. And working closely with our with the IFA Foundation, we've launched a new multi year purpose driven campaign called open for opportunity. And, you know, we want everyone to really understand and know what the franchise model is. That it that and that it's working because again, whether it's, you know, the legislators, the lawmakers, if you will, and then just the general public, people don't understand franchising. So this campaign is going to help people understand that the franchise model is working, it's working for families, for our neighbors, and our communities. Franchising creates jobs in the communities, it creates wealth for the franchisees, it helps people realize, really the American Dream for people who have never thought about, you know, going into business for themselves, but not by themselves. Franchising creates that that realization that you could actually own your own business and replicate what other people have have already done. So, you know, in conjunction with the launch of the campaign, IFA and Oxford Economics released the first of its kind research report detailing the impact and importance of franchising in America. And thanks to, you know, to the survey responses of over like 4000 franchise owners, the report, the value of franchising reveals how independent franchise owners are truly local business leaders who contribute to the economic growth, job creation, and charitable endeavors in the communities across this country. And you're going to be hearing a lot about it at the convention, we're going to start doing a road show right after the convention. So for those of you who are coming to the convention, believe me, you're going to hear a lot about it. And if you want to get involved, please, you could stop by the IFA booth or reach out to you know, myself or any of my colleagues at IFA we'll be we would love to get people as involved in that as possible. Awesome. Well, Paul, come on. Oh, come on. I'll come off my soapbox, man. No, I

Josh Allen: 19:27

love it. I love it. We love franchising. We're a big part of this. And it's always good to hear directly from the source all the things that the ifas and organization on behalf of franchising is doing and always great to talk to you as well. I'm looking like watching you, you know, cruising around the exhibit hall and elsewhere and catching up, like we said, face to face and San Diego for the first time in a long time.

Paul Rocchio: 19:51

You bet Josh, really looking forward to seeing you my friend. And again, thanks for this opportunity. And thanks to location three, you guys have always been on A stellar valued member of IFA just can't thank you enough Josh and, and your good friend, buddy. So So Thanks really looking forward to seeing you my friend, same track. So

Josh Allen: 20:08

thanks, Paul. Thanks everybody that wraps another episode of digital shop talk. You can find Paul rachio at the IFA website franchise.org If you're interested in learning more about becoming a member if you aren't already, and you're in franchising, I highly recommend it. That will do it for us today. We will see you next time.

Paul Rocchio: 20:27

Take care thanks Josh bye. Franchise franchising